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ACM TechNews

Instead of Robots Taking Jobs, AI May Help Humans Do Their Jobs Better

brain with circuitry, illustration


Oregon State University professor Tom Dietterich sees vast potential for collaboration between humans and artificial intelligence (AI), contrary to popular assumptions that AI will replace people in jobs. "Each of us would have an AI assistant that we would train in our lives and the two of us, together, would be employed," he speculates. "This is where we can see super-human performance coming from the combination of the human and the computer."

Dietterich cites current examples of human/smart machine cooperation, including accelerated three-dimensional modeling of an HIV enzyme. Among the areas he anticipates will rapidly adopt human/AI collaboration are high-speed stock trades, automated surgical assistants, and autonomous weapons.

University of California, Berkeley professor Trevor Darrell expects the capabilities of smart devices to multiply by orders of magnitude within the next five to 10 years, while the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Pam Melroy goes further, envisioning an AI-biology convergence. "There's something about human-machine communication symbiosis and how humans and machines can partner well together," she says. Melroy notes a smart prosthetic appendage to replace a lost limb is one possible example of this intersection, but realizes it will require advances in thought-controlled devices.

From Computerworld
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